Intervertebral disk injuries and degeneration have long been a contributing factor to lost employee time for a large number of companies. In fact, it is estimated that 80% of the population will experience severe back pain during their life, while millions live with chronic back pain every day. Excessive loading of the spine through changes in a person's lifestyle, extended periods of sitting while driving or sitting at a desk, and many other factors all may cause premature degeneration of intervertebral discs and repeated injury of the disc annulus.
Often times, treatment of such injuries in an effort to return a person to their livelihood has included conservative treatment modalities that have provided at best only temporary relief, and as a last resort, invasive surgery that ordinarily carries an associated risk of paralysis.
Moreover, despite efforts to alleviate back pain symptoms, severely damaged discs seldom heal. Nutrition in the avascular disc depends on osmotic diffusion of collagen precursors (e.g., proline), nutrients, and oxygen through direct channels in the annulus (30%), and the hyaline end plate in the vertebrae above and below the disc (70%). It is estimated that the cycle of proline uptake and renewal in the normal disc (necessary for collagen synthesis and repair) takes approximately 500 days. This inherently slow cycle is additionally compromised in the deranged disc. By lowering intradiscal pressures, properly applied spinal disc decompression therapy (i.e., unloading due to distraction and positioning) would greatly facilitate this process and accelerate healing in the disc segment.
Mechanical traction has been used in the past in an attempt to alleviate the pain associated with damaged disc structures, but such methods have provided highly inconsistent results. Such mechanical traction involves the application of a distracting force to either realign a structural abnormality or to relieve excessive intradiscal pressures. Successful mechanical traction can alleviate the pain symptoms associated with such disorders. However, prior known methods and apparatus for providing mechanical traction apply the distraction force to the entire spine, thus “treating” areas of the spine that do not exhibit such disorders. Such inefficient application of force to the entire spine structure carries an increased risk of mechanical traction side effects to normal areas of the spine, such as muscle strain and spasm. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for applying a distracting force to a localized area of the spine that requires treatment, as opposed to the entire spinal column.
Moreover, prior known methods and apparatus for providing mechanical traction ordinarily apply harnesses to the patient's upper body portion and pelvis, and pull the pelvic harness so as to apply a traction force to the patient's spine. Such force application ordinarily requires that a significant amount of frictional force between the patient's body and the table surface be overcome, as application of the distraction forces will require relative movement between the patient's body and the table surface. Overcoming such frictional forces may cause the forces transferred from the pulling apparatus to the patient's spine to vary from a uniform, linear force application, in turn increasing the risk of side effects such as muscle spasm and patient discomfort. It would therefore also be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for applying a distracting force to a patient's spine while minimizing the occurrence of non-uniform force application.
Still further, the patient receiving the mechanical traction treatment often has no control over the treatment process. This causes anxiety in the patient, in turn often causing the patient to tense the muscles in his or her back, which in turn can lead to increased risk of muscle spasm. It would therefore also be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for applying a distracting force while enabling the patient to maintain a measure of control over the treatment process.